Last November, now former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) didn't just lose the U.S. Senate race to try and oust Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), he lost by 8.5 percentage points. As Republicans figure out a primary for the 2026 race between Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Allred is looking to take advantage and run once more.
The announcement came on Tuesday, and Allred's run is already a trending topic over X. The announcement video focused on Allred's his life story and being a "fighter," though the tone of the video also took on something of a dark message, including on how "everything's backwards" and a lack of "getting ahead" excerpt for those "who cut corners and cut deals." Affordability was a major issue brought up, as was a "broken" and how the system is "rigged."
Allred also went after both Cornyn and Paxton, as being "too corrupt to care about us and too weak to fight for us," though he also later goes on to mention how "real change is possible." He previews how his first plan will be "an anti-corruption plan."
Washington is broken and the system is rigged – and Texas families are paying the price.
— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) July 1, 2025
Today I’m announcing I’m running for the U.S. Senate because Texans deserve someone who will fight for them.
From working to lower costs to taking on corruption, I’m ready to be the fighter… pic.twitter.com/geXv6DjL8g
It's a midterm election year, but Texas is red enough where the Republican nominee should be all right. Cruz was also up for reelection in 2018, the midterm elections for President Donald and he held on for that seat.
Plus, Texas is not merely a red state, it's also shifted to the right. As POLITICO pointed out on Tuesday morning about Allred's announcement:
Turning Texas blue has long been a dream for Democrats, who argued the state’s increasing diversity will help them eventually flip it. But Trump’s significant inroads with Latino voters in Texas, particularly in the Rio Grande Valley, may impede those hopes. Of the 10 counties that shifted the farthest right from the 2012 to 2024 presidential elections, seven are in Texas, according to a New York Times analysis, including double-digit improvements in seven heavily Latino districts.
Not only did Cruz emerge victorious once more last November, doing much better than polls predicted, Trump also won by larger margins than what the polls predicted for him, +13.6. He won the Lone Star State for his 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections, and a Democrat hasn't won the state since Jimmy Carter did in 1976. Then Vice President Kamala Harris still campaigned in Texas last year with Allred on abortion, with polling showing that did no favors for the Democrat looking to replace Cruz.
Allred is also likely to run in a crowded primary field, POLITICO mentioned as well. Polling commissioned by the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Cornyn, has the Republican incumbent Allred by 6 percentage points, while Paxton is behind by 1 percentage point.
The U.S. Texas seat is considered "Solid Republican" or at least "Likely Republican" for 2026, leaving Democrats likely limited to a potential pickup in North Carolina with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announcing his retirement on Sunday, and, to a lesser extent, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), though she performed far better than expected when holding onto her seat in 2020.
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